So things are all black and white??? Are you trying to say that the issues the country is facing today can by answered with a simple yes or no? I’m not a liberal or a democrat or leftest or whatever scary label you want to put on people that opposes your view. I think for myself and I’m thinking that your a loon, coo coo for coco puffs. Have fun stock pile your weapons and teabag america.. sounds like loads of fun.

I think you’ re right on the money here. A polititian, who out of mere politeness would thoughtfully engage the student, and have a dialogue. The trouble is Barney is smart enough to know he is very vulnerable on this topic. The student had gutts to stand up and ask the question, putting the pol on the spot. Experienced polititians now adays I think want to embarrase such questioners hoping to end the practice. Fox News reporters, Joe the plumber as mentioned earlier. If attacked hard and often enough are suppoe to learn their lesson and just ask the softball vanilla questions like everyone from NBC.

Angainor

Good name. The unbreakable chain they used to bind Morgoth!

Rather than asking Barney Frank to assess his own responsibility in the meltdown, our brave student would have been better advised to ask Frank to explain his vote on a specific question, or to defend one of those illustrative statements we’ve all seen on web videos. Major props to him for the effort though! It’s a crying shame that the Republicans who should have been conspicuously leading such a charge have been in such short supply.

What struck me was that Frank defended himself by citing his efforts to regulate hedge funds — which probably had less to do with the economic crisis than practically any other financial entities.

Money quotes:

To keep profits aloft and meet affordable-housing goals set by Congress, the companies began buying huge numbers of subprime and Alt-A mortgages, the highly profitable loans often taken out by low-income and riskier borrowers. By the end of last year, the companies had guaranteed or invested in $717 billion of subprime and Alt-A loans, up from almost none in 2000.

An even better:

Despite those troubles, lawmakers had few alternatives to asking Fannie and Freddie to buy more and riskier mortgages.

“I want these companies to help with affordable housing, to help low-income families get loans and to help clean up this subprime mess,” said Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat and the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. “Otherwise, why should they exist?”

Do you see that, torrentprime? Your Barney Fag, who insists he never pressured Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and who insists they were never invested in subprime or bad mortgages is lying to your face.

But you can’t admit that, because you’re a gay-sex liberal. You have to defend Fag because he’s gay. Don’t you have enough pride and self-esteem to admit that Fag lied to you?

Fannie Mae’s changes will include allowing borrowers seeking to take out a loan that is 80 percent of the value of the home or less to qualify for refinancing with credit scores below its 580 minimum. Consumer credit scores as measured by Fair Isaac Corp. range from 300 to 850.

The program also lowers income-documentation requirements to one current pay stub, according to the notice.

So in other words, even as Fag and his leftist cronies like torrentprime shriek about “regulation” and “lax standards”, they’re lowering them even farther at their government-controlled mortgage company.

Barney Frank at a hearing in September 2003

The government found a way to spend as much as it wanted, by guaranteeing the debts of the off-budget government agencies (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The current bailouts and huge budgets continue to serve the self-interest of politicians and government aligned groups.

We Guarantee It

As other links, and history, shredded the link you had, I’d say it’s reality 1, TP 0.

To the original post, Barney is popular because he’s able to go from bully to martyr is less time than it takes for President Obama to answer a question w/o a teleprompter. Thus he plays on the emotions of the left, and their feelings of self vindication. Logic never enters into it.